Cable News Network

The Cable News Network (CNN) is a liberal, 24-hour cable news channel in the United States. First started in 1980 by Ted Turner, it is a division of the Turner Broadcasting System, which is part of the corporatist media conglomerate TimeWarner.

In the first half of 2017, CNN's market share relative to its competitors saw a marked decline.[1] In addition, it faced repeated losses of its credibility through its lapses of journalistic judgment and ethical lapses.[2] President Donald Trump publicly says CNN produces "fake news" and he also told a CNN reporter that CNN produces "very fake news".[3] Subsequently, CNN has been derided as being "FNN: Fake News Network".[4]

From its origin as a cable-only service, CNN now broadcasts worldwide by satellite, with programs presented from studios in several countries in addition to their headquarters in Atlanta. Some regions receive locally produced opt-outs (under the name "CNN International"), and there are also broadcasts in Spanish, German, Italian, Croatian, Japanese, and Turkish.

CNN was successful until around 2001, when Fox News began beating it in the ratings. Since then it has been failing.

Contents

History

CNN was founded by media mogul Ted Turner and made its debut on June 1, 1980 as the first 24-hour news network.[5]
During its early years it struggled to achieve the success and credibility of older news agencies, such as the news divisions of ABC, NBC, CBS, and BBC. However, it achieved a great deal of recognition during its coverage of the first Gulf War during which it was the only news agency reporting during the initial night of the war. These events led to a movie, Live from Baghdad, which portrays the events. In September 2010, head of its U.S. network Jon Klein was fired.[6] Ted Turner has sold CNN to Time Warner.

In January 2017, after a long string of false news reporting, exaggerations, and outright lies spanning months, President-Elect Donald Trump refused a question from the organization in a worldwide televised press conference, declaring, "You are fake news."[7]

Ratings and reception

Although CNN was once the dominant network on cable news and one of the highest rated channels on cable television, this is no longer the case. In overall ratings, CNN is usually second place behind Fox News Channel but ahead of MSNBC.[8]

By February 2014, CNN's average number of total viewers during the day from Monday to Sunday was 307,000 with 96,000 in the key 25 to 54 viewing demographic.[9] In 2013, the network fell to a 20-year low in primetime ratings and experienced its second-lowest year ever in the 25 to 54 viewing demographic. That year, CNN also experienced its lowest total-day audience since 1992, and its lowest total-day 25 to 54 audience since 2000.[10] 2014 closed out with CNN having all-time ratings lows. In primetime, the network suffered its worst-rated year in total viewers and its second-lowest in the 25 to 54 viewing demographic. In total day, CNN received its worst-rated year in the key demographic.[11]

Bias

Jason Kessler, organizer of the "Unite the Right" protest in Charlottesville is seen here as an Occupy Wall Street organizer with an accredited CNN byline as Assignment Editor. Kessler was an Obama supporter until November 2016, then organized the Unite the Right movement in January 2017.[12] Kessler is now listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as the founder of a neo-Nazi group that organized a protest in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017 which resulted in the death of a woman.[13]

In 2001, the Media Research Center stated, "CNN certainly is less biased to the left than ABC, CBS and NBC".[14] However, it stated in the same report that "while much of its day-to-day reporting is more balanced than that offered on the broadcast networks, its news judgment usually follows the liberal agenda with conservatives relegated to reacting to it" and noted that it had some hosts on the network who clearly leaned to the left such as Larry King. And more recently, Conservative media critics, amongst other groups, rightly accuse CNN of promoting the liberal agenda with slanted reporting.[15] CNN has mocked and insulted members of the Tea Party Movement.[16] Their coverage of the US Election of 2012 has also made alarm bells ring in the minds of true journalists. CNN has supported the far-left Occupy Wall Street movement[17] and has given mainstream legitimacy to the extremist views of Van Jones who was very active in the anti-Semitic9/11 Truther movement. In October 2013 CNN mocked the "Million Vet March" in Washington, focusing on one speaker, whom it quoted as stating, “I call upon all of you to wage a second American nonviolent revolution, to use civil disobedience, and to demand that this president [Barack Obama at the time] leave town, to get up, to put the Quran down, to get up off his knees, and to figuratively come out with his hands up.”[18]

CNN has had some conservative commentators in the past. For example, Rowland Evans and Robert Novak were conservatives who hosted a show on CNN called Evans and Novak, later Evans, Novak, Hunt, and Shields, and Novak also co-hosted the debate programs Capital Gang, and Crossfire, and was a political commentator on CNN's general coverage. Tucker Carlson, now at Fox News, was a CNN political analyst at one point. Another conservative on CNN was Kate O'Beirne. Barry Goldwater was a commentator for CNN at one point.[19]Alex Castellanos was a frequent presence during the 2012 election. Conservative commentators have also included S.E. Cupp, Jeffrey Lord, Newt Gingrich, and Jack Kingston among others.

Today, Jeff Zucker, its new leader, openly despises Fox News and the Republican Party,[20][21] in contrast to his predecessor Walter Isaacson, who tried to have balanced coverage,[22] and another predecessor Tom Johnson, who was friends with Roger Ailes, the leader of Fox News.[23]

Not only does CNN have a visible left-wing and anti-Trump bias, but CNN International is one of the most prominent international broadcasters from the U.S., meaning worldwide viewers wanting to watch a U.S. channel or see the U.S. perspective will find CNN's left-wing bias, which will distort their perception of the U.S.[24]

2016 election

CNN abruptly cancelled the highly successful Dr. Drew show when Dr. Drew expressed concern on air about Hillary Clinton's health and the care and treatment she's been receiving from Dr. Lisa Bardack for post-concussion syndrome. In 2012, when Hillary got a "cracked head" (her words per her email) a blood clot, or thrombosis, was formed inside her skull.[25] Hillary was not hospitalized, according to CNN's reporting at the time.[26] Dr. Drew criticized the use of outdated bloodthinners her physician prescribes.[27] Dr. Drew was threatened and harassed after his comments and CNN demanded he retract them. When he refused, he was fired.[28]

During Erin Burnett's broadcast, CNN maliciously slandered Donald Trump with the claim he advocated racial profiling when in fact he has not. A review of the transcript shows that Trump never used the phrase in his comments on terrorism and immigration. CNN ran headlines reporting that the GOP presidential nominee spoke of using "racial profiling" to stop terrorism. Trump spoke of “profiling," as Israel does. CNN added the word "racial". CNN likewise edited out a key portion of Hillary Clinton's Saturday statement days earlier following the terror attacks in New York and New Jersey.[29]

CNN had gone on air with doctored, altered images of writing on Twitter from Donald Trump editing out the wording of Trump's messages critical of Hillary Clinton asking for the release of her medical records.[30][31]

Post-Obama era

On May 17, 2017 CNN reported a fabricated story alleging that facts surrounding the computer of murdered DNC whistleblower Seth Rich in possession of the FBI, which was used to transmit DNC emails and the Pedosta files to Wikileaks, were recanted by the sources.[32] Sources denied CNN's allegations.[33] The fake news by CNN was an attempt to blunt the impact of the evidence in the FBI's possession that debunks the Russian hacking theory of DNC servers as the source for Wikileaks.[34] The revelation came two days after the removal of both James Comey and Andrew McCabe over the investigation into the extent of Russian activities in the 2016 election.[35][36]

A CNN program claimed in May 2017 that Islam "has always been part of the American fabric" even as far back as the American Revolution, despite the apparent contradiction with the historical record.[37]

CNN employee Kathy Griffen posed for a photo-shoot with an ISIS-inspired decapitated head of the President which was widely circulated and won accolades among radical Leftists. After a public outcry from more civil, mainstream society, and even entertainment colleagues, as well as Chelsea Clinton (herself under Secret Service who take anything that may seem threatening very seriously), Griffen offered what appeared to be a sincere apology as pressure for her firing took shape. Once she was fired, she immediately went on the attack against Trump again, blaming him for her getting fired.

On June 3, 2017, after seven people were murdered at 5 locations in London by Muslims screaming “this is for Allah," CNN reported it was unsure of the attackers motives.[38] The following day a citizen journalist videotaped CNN's preparation and staging of a fake news report about peaceful protests, replete with the stage hands, extras, and props.[39]

After several inaccuracies and flaws were found in a CNN article that attacked Trump and his allies over a Russia fund, CNN retracted the article.[40][41] Three CNN employees resigned due to the resulting scandal.[42][43]

James O'Keefe of Project Veritas, who helped expose the fraud of CNN's fake news narratives about the Trump-Russia conspiracy theory, summarized CNN's non-journalistic and unethical standards as motivated by corporate greed and ratings driven by liberal viewers. A deliberate effort to report as news a story that liberals wished to be true without any factual evidence.[44] He revealed that liberal CNN political commentator Van Jones called the outlet's Russia stories a "nothingburger."[45][46] He also revealed that a CNN associate producer called voters "stupid as s***", and regarding President Trump stated that "on the inside, we all recognize that he is a clown, that he is hilariously unqualified for this, he’s really bad at this and that he does not have America’s best interests. We recognize he’s just f***ing crazy."[47][48]

In June 2017, CNN Politics made a story about how former U.S. President Obama had made a "definite upgrade" in his choice of jeans.[49]

Months after an alleged Russian dossier against Trump was discredited, CNN continued to promote it.[50]

As an example of the many instances of blatant bias by CNN's anchors and correspondents, its Chief White House Correspondent, Jim Acosta, stated in January 2018 that President Trump "seems to harbor racist feelings about people of color, from other parts of the world."[51]

Reddit CNN memes channel

The New York Times wrote in an article entitled How a CNN Investigation Set Off an Internet Meme War:

“

The Reddit forum r/CNNmemes, a self-described outpost for “memes of CNN or other failing MSM networks,” began to fill with user-generated images. One user pasted CNN’s logo into a still image from what appeared to be an ISIS hostage video, implying that the network had coerced the Reddit user behind the pro-Trump meme into making an apology. Another user superimposed CNN’s logo onto the face of Kim Jong-un, the North Korean dictator...

On Monday, a CNN reporter tracked down the identity of the user, who quickly deleted his posts, renounced his meme-creating ways, and apologized in a long, seemingly sincere post to /r/The_Donald. CNN declined to name the user, but said, somewhat mysteriously, that it “reserves the right” to publish his identity in the future if he continued to create offensive content.

To many on the right, that caveat felt like a threat issued by a powerful news organization to a private citizen: Fall in line, or we’ll expose you...

To understand how Reddit memes could ignite a national controversy and put a multibillion-dollar media company on its heels, it helps to know that right-wing meme-makers are a particularly prolific and vocal internet subcommunity. They gather in clusters on Reddit, and similar sites like 4chan and Discord, in order to trade images and strategize about disseminating them to wide audiences.[52]